Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day: July

The garden in July  is great! The weeds have slowed down, everything that needs it is already staked, the bedding plants are all in and the pots planted.  Gardening at the moment consists of the very pleasurable tasks of dead heading and watering – both of which give you ample time and opportunity for admiring the results of all the hard work done earlier in the year. There are weeds of course, but there is very little space between the plants so it is difficult to weed without breaking plants – well that is my excuse anyway.

The garden is looking quite bright; I’m not sure all the colours exactly go together but I like the overall effect..

Looking down the long border

Here you can see orange Erysimum ‘Apricot Twist’ , some  red poppie, ‘Ladybird’, a  white lupin and further back a white delphinium, Helenium ‘Moerheim Beauty’ just coming out, Persicaria ‘Red Dragon leaves at the front and at the far right of the photo a  deep pink Penstemon that has been integral in my border for many years.

In the middle of the long border another plant of the pink penstemon is flowering.  I have divided this so many times and I have it everywhere.  In the front are two newly acquired geums – unfortunately the red one doesn’t really go with the penstemon, but I was short of a place to put it. Well, I wouldn’t be happy if I didn’t have  plants to rearrange in the Autumn!

The middle of the long border in July

A bit to the right I have a blaze of colour. I love the bright yellows and oranges of the gazanias with their exotic markings. ( Especially when they are marked right down to £1 each for mature plants that will flower until the frosts.) Actually I am really pleased as two of these plants are survivors from last year – just shows what a mild winter we had.

Yellow gazania

Orange gazania

With the gazanias I have a mixed lot of mesembryanthemums. I love these flowers! I don’t generally like mixed colours of bedding plants and will always go for the single colours, but in this case I will make an exception. Well, that might be because you can rarely find single colours to buy and I can’t not have these in my garden.

The back corner, though is planted with mostly white plants as it is rather a dark, shady corner and I hoped to brighten it up a bit.

The white Astilbe Japonica ‘Deutchland,  has been magnificent this year and is still opening up. However there are some flowers here that were not meant to be white……

I am sure these Sidalcea were split off from a pink ‘Elsie Heugh’ but they have come up white so now I am not sure whether they have changed colour or my memory is wrong.  It is more likely to be the latter!

Did you notice the yellow antirrhinums?  The one at the back is not yellow at all but a lovely white colour – it obviously knows what is expected of it in that corner.

white Antirrhinum

The astilbes are almost at their best, both the white one in the dark corner and this pink one, ‘Touch of Pink’.

I am quite pleased with a little planned colour combination near the bench.

Cotinus underplanted  with scabious

I planted a couple of light purple scabious plants under the cotinus bush with a tall blue campanula behind. Nature added a tall purple toadflax at the back also. I have a feeling there are a lot of colours that would go really well with a Cotinus.

Now here is a plant for those of you that love dandelions.  I got it from  a plant sale at Drum Castle as the head gardener had grown it from seed.  It only took one year to get this big.  The flowers are not that spectacular, but the seed heads are beautiful. I just hope it doesn’t spread around as much as dandelions and with such dreadful roots.

Tragopogon Protensis

The Hemerocallis, ‘Jolly Hearts’, is looking especially jolly at the moment.

Hemerocallis ‘Jolly Hearts’

Meanwhile I am hoping that Geranium ‘Rozanne’ pulls its socks up a bit. Last year it was a new plant and just dominated the border and tried to take over the lawn too. It was quite spectacular.

Geranium Rozanne 1913

So this year I split it and moved it to the top of the herbaceous border  hoping it would spread down into a space left when other plants had died down.  It is doing well but nothing like last year.  Oh well there is still time. . .

Rozanne 1914

Throughout the garden there are some really beautiful little flowers.  Have a look at some close ups of these, as the stamens and markings are so beautiful. Can you identify them all? (Answers at the end)

Macro 1

Macro 2

Macro 3

Macro 4

Macro 5

Meanwhile the pots are filling out. In some cases I was just able to plant over the top of the bulbs and hopefully if I feed them enough they will come up right as rain in the spring.

Pink cosmos with white lobelia

I did try a little trick to keep the slugs away from some pots until they have got established. I have put them in the middle of our little Japanese garden….

So here are the answers – I feel I should put them in upside down, but I don’t know how….just as well I hear you say!

Macro1:  Geranium ‘Ballerina’ – a beautiful small geranium in the rockery.
Macro 2: Erigeron ‘Sea Breeze’
Macro 3: Red herbaceous Potentilla – maybe ‘Gibson’s Scarlet’.
Macro 4:  A tiny dianthus.
Macro 5: Poppy ‘Ladybird’ – one of the few things I grow from seed every year.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden who hosts this meme on the 15th of every month; why not visit her site to see how other gardens are blooming today.

Next Garden Update: Garden Update: July turns to August